


Take a smile

by kornevable



Category: Saiyuki, Saiyuki Gaiden
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-21 13:47:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17044868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kornevable/pseuds/kornevable
Summary: Another day in the office, spent like any other--like usual.





	Take a smile

**Author's Note:**

  * For [faradheia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/faradheia/gifts).



> Hi faradheia! I hope your holidays are going well :D I love the Gaiden party so much, the found family vibes they exude are so strong they make me cry. I hope you'll enjoy this little piece of work!

 

“It's hard raising a kid, huh?”

“It's not a kid. He's a monkey.”

Konzen points to the various scribbling acting as ornaments on his desk, and Kenren's gaze naturally follows it to then discover tea stains on official documents, and broken pieces of a pricey vase scattered on the floor. The room hasn't been clean, quiet or organized ever since the kid has been brought up here, and Konzen honestly doesn't believe it will ever be, now.

Goku is happily drawing with his crayons on the floor, lying on his stomach and kicking his feet in the air. He's not really paying attention to them, since he has set himself the task of protecting the secret of what he's drawing. It's not the first time he's decided to do this kind of thing.

“Your office needed some colors, anyway,” Kenren jokes, his eternal grin on his face. “I mean, even boring paperwork can become fun, right?”

“What you're saying doesn't make any sense at all. And it contradicts itself.”

Kenren laughs, and straightens, no longer leaning against the desk. He crushes the butt of his cigarette in the ashtray—courtesy of Tenpou who took the liberty of authorizing smoking in a place that wasn't his. Konzen pinches the bridge of his nose, gathering all his will to fix this mess before his aunt shows up to nag him _again_.

“I was living peacefully before I got my arms full of a bratty monkey.”

“I'm not a monkey!” Goku turns his head to pout at him, but quickly looks back at his drawing.

“Selective memory,” Konzen mutters.

He watches Goku give a vicious pencil stroke to what he assumes is a tree, then his irritation completely disappears within seconds as he resumes his cheerful coloring. Konzen has never understood children.

Kenren pulls another cigarette from his pack, as if this isn't his fourth one in the day. Konzen casts him a disapproving look, but the general simply shrugs.

“Hey, we're basically immortal, let me have my fun.”

“Being immortal doesn't protect you from the nasty crap that is tobacco.”

“You know that Tenpou smokes way more than me, and we're still pretty healthy. Maybe being immortal _does_ protect us!”

Kenren laughs at his own joke, now having no qualms about lighting his cigarette. Konzen doesn't know why he even bothers—if Kenren is best friends with Tenpou, then he is surely just as stubborn, or thick-headed. The years of friendship with Tenpou taught him that foolishness is not something that he can be cured that easily, unfortunately.

“We've told you multiple times already, but you should loosen up and enjoy your day,” Kenren continues. “Be like Goku.”

“Stuffing myself and jumping around, you mean?”

Kenren rolls his eyes as he releases a breath of smoke. “Yeah, exactly, your old joints need some exercising anyway.”

Sitting at a desk to fill in papers and stamping documents are the only activities he remembers doing ever since he entered adulthood—being a high-ranking person, related to Kanzeon Bosatsu on top of it, would give him some...privileges, even if he doesn't consider being holed up in a room with boredom as company something to envy. But the thought of moving around and twist his body in ways that shouldn't be physically possible don't look very appealing either. Kenren and Tenpou are born-warriors, that much is certain.

“I don't particularly need a life coach, Kenren.”

“You don't anymore, I think.”

Konzen raises an eyebrow. It's not every day he witnesses cryptic comments from the carefree general.

“What does that mean?”

Kenren waves the hand holding his cigarette around. The smell is strong, and Konzen makes a face at it but that's another constant he's been living with for a few months now.

(Just how much has his life changed in so short a time?)

“Would you have imagined your office crowded like that?” Kenren asks with a half smile. “From what I've heard around me, you were pretty much the prissy bureaucrat. And that's the impression you gave me the first time we met.”

“I don't care about what the others think about me. That's pointless.”

“You're right, we don't have to worry about people who aren't happy with us, unless your paycheck is on the line.”

Konzen snorts. “You didn't follow your own advice, then.”

Kenren shrugs again, his smile never leaving his face. He's always exuding so much confidence, like the whole world means nothing to him and he will bend it to his own will. His superior officers being fed up with his attitude doesn't come as a surprise.

“My point is, the kid brought a lot of life in Heaven. Man, never seen so many stuck-up bastards all upset.”

Outside of the daily wreckage of his office, Konzen has received several complaints about property destruction and disturbance in the compound, which he wouldn't give a damn about if not for the constant pestering from people who want him to ‘control his pet’.  
Of course, he let Goku do whatever he wanted after that. Only because it was amusing to see their outrage.

“I guess you're right,” he admits. He pushes a strand of hair behind his ear. “I'm not used to the noise.”

“Ha! Noise is good, it's proof there is something alive. I'd go crazy in a silent office all day. Don't you agree, Goku?”

Goku shifts and turns his head towards Kenren, seemingly unaware of their conversation, but the furious nod he gives them surprises Konzen. Is he listening to them? Or does he choose what he wants to hear, like usual?

“See, even the kid agrees. Be bold, Konzen, embrace the life of a free man.”

“I'm not going to become depraved like you,” Konzen replies darkly, though this only elicits loud laughter from the man in question.

It's odd, to have someone to speak so casually to, to have a brat drawing on a paper and probably outside of it too, and to feel that this is all… normal. That this is a development he came to accept as part of a relatively peaceful life—that would have been calm and isolation, before. It's odd, but not unpleasant, and this is certainly what he's the most surprised about.

They are immortal; they watch the World Below move and shift, while theirs remains stilted, like trapped in a time long gone. He has always assumed he wouldn't change, either.

“My, what a festive party.”

Goku immediately perks up and wildly waves from the floor, a crayon still in his hand.

“Put that down before you stab someone,” Konzen automatically chides.

“Sorry, Konzen!”

Tenpou chuckles, and crouches to look at Goku's drawing. Realizing he let his guard down, Goku scrambles to hide it, but now Tenpou is smiling warmly, putting a hand on Goku's head and ruffling his hair.

“That's a wonderful picture, Goku.”

With nothing left to salvage, Goku beams. “Thanks, Ten-chan! I'll finish it in no time!”

And just like that his attention is on his drawing again. How one-tracked mind he is.

Tenpou joins them at the desk, looking as impeccable as ever in his white coat. Konzen knows better though.

“You just woke up from a nap, didn't you?”

No wrinkles on the coat don't negate the mess that is Tenpou's hair and his eyes still half-asleep.

“You know me so well, Konzen,” Tenpou laughs. “I can't say that leading a troop of soldiers is a restful occupation.”

He gives a pointed look at Kenren, who throws his hands up in the air.

“You didn't ask me! And I'm not officially your right hand man, how do you expect me to stay behind for extra strategy and all?”

“I thought you liked having control over people and their actions?”

“You're making me sound like a psychopath.”

Konzen loudly snorts at their ridiculous conversation. He doesn't look like it, but Kenren is easy to make fun of, which is something that Tenpou gladly takes advantage of—this man loves his rhetoric, and Konzen is almost certain that he hasn't had many opportunities to test it out.

His reaction is apparently unexpected because both soldiers glance his way. His face instantly reverts back to an expression of complete indifference, as he narrows his eyes.

“What, now?”

Kenren looks about to say something but Tenpou beats him to it. “I was preparing our next picnic under the cherry blossoms, so I came to inform you of this.”

They already went on a picnic two weeks ago. Goku loves them, though; he'd spend hours running around and playing with Kenren, or letting Tenpou teach him about whatever they stumble upon. They don't do much for themselves, except for drinking and eating food they spent way too much time making to be worth the effort. Really, it's mostly a day for Goku to enjoy.

“If it means I can shirk my responsibilities, then why not,” Konzen says.

Tenpou smiles, too brightly, too knowing, and Konzen resists the urge to scowl or to throw his inkwell at him.

“You avoid work and can get some sunlight, you kill two birds with one stone. I wouldn't have been able to drag you outside so easily before.”

_Before Goku arrived_  goes unsaid, but its implication was loud enough for everyone in the room to hear. Tenpou and Kenren took a liking to the kid so fast that Konzen wants to point out that they too, have seen their world turned upside down in the span of a few days. He didn't know Kenren personally before, but judging from the rumors and what he's observed, the general is truly having fun. Tenpou looks less rigid and more patient, though it might just be because he's become used to Konzen's apathetic behavior and knows what to look for or what buttons to push.

(Goku called him the sun, only because he doesn't know what his presence does.)

The corner of his lips tug upwards, as he nods.

“My drawing is done!”

Goku jumps on his feet, pens and crayons all but abandoned on the floor, and slams the sheet of paper on the desk. Konzen belatedly realizes that he didn't take a blank sheet but one of the lesser important documents he was reading yesterday, and as usual, he doesn't find the power to care about it.

Instead, he glances at the drawing, as do Kenren and Tenpou. He knows what kind of things Goku likes to draw, the colors he likes to use or the feeling he likes to depict. The first time he was presented with one of them he was at a loss—how does one react to the work of a child too proud of himself? Comment on the sentiment? Point out the oddities? Thanking him? And of course, Tenpou had an easy immediate feedback.

But Konzen quickly learned that putting in too much efforts backfire on him—so he keeps it simple.

“You drew more people, this time,” he comments.

“Yes! I saved enough space to draw everyone!”

Goku excitedly points at each of the figures, standing next to a cherry blossom tree under a bright sun. All the main elements are there to clearly distinguish them: blonde hair, glasses, black coat, and a smaller character. The four of them are smiling, and when Konzen looks up to gauge Kenren's and Tenpou's expressions, he realizes that this is now what he only needs to be satisfied. A sun, and three smiling people.

So he smiles, too.

 


End file.
